Rendering of Wet Materials

Abstract

The appearance of many natural materials is largely influenced by the environment in which they are situated. Capturing the effects of such environmental factors is essential for producing realistic synthetic images. In this work, we model the changes of appearance due to one such environmental factor, the presence of water or other liquids. Wet materials can look darker, brighter, or more specular depending on the type of material and the viewing conditions. These differences in appearance are caused by a combination of the presence of liquid on the surface and inside the material. To simulate both of these conditions we have developed an approach that combines a reflection model for surface water with subsurface scattering. We demonstrate our approach with a variety of example scenes, showcasing many characteristic appearances of wet materials.